M. Pitchiah Kumar

Hypertension commonly referred to as ‘high blood pressure’, is a medical condition in which the blood pressure is chronically elevated. In this modern era several antihypertensive drugs are available. But these medicines have many side effects such as palpitation, tachycardia, hyponatremia, hyperkalemia, increased risk of developing diabetes, and reduced renal function and life threatening complications. Globally about 80% of the population using herbal medicines for their primary health care, particularly in developing countries. In herbal medicine the treatment for essential hypertension can bring the blood pressure level in to the normal range. WHO recently encourages, utilization of herbs and traditional herbal medicines, for national healthcare programs, as they are easily available at lower cost and comparatively safe medicines.In this article such herbs used in Siddha medicine have been studied and discussed for the therapeutic management for hypertension. In Siddha system the disease hypertension was described as Rakthaazhutham, Rakthathikkam, Azhutham. RakthakothippunoiandNaadiirukkam.All herbs reviewed in this article are useful in the treatment of hypertension. Among studied herbs, Rough chaff(Acyranthesaspera), Indianpennywort (Centella asiatica),Coriander(Coriandrumsativum),Cumin (Cuminumcyminum),Cardamom (Elettaria cardamom),Roughbryon (Melotheriamaderaspatn),Pepper (Piper nigrum), Arjun tree(Terminaliaarjuna), Land caltrops (Tribulusterrestri), Winter cherry (Withaniasomnifera), Ginger (Zingiberofficinalis) has Antihypertensive effect and cardiac tonic. Ginger (Allium sativum) and Deodar (Cedrusdeodara)reduces the blood cholesterol level and decreases the hypertension. Water lily (Nympheaalba)and Long pepper Piper longumshowed ACE inhibitor activity and reduces the blood pressure.

Standardization and quality control are essential analytical tools to guarantee the correct identifications of drugs. Adulteration and misidentification of herbal drug can cause dreadful health problems to the public and legal headaches for the pharmaceutical industry. The VPM was prepared according to the Siddha classical literature to treat the anti-dyslipidemic activity. The present study was carried out with specific aim to establish standards for Vaeppampoovathy Mathirai based on organoleptic characters, physico-chemical properties (The total -ash value 9.5%, Acid insoluble ash 1.7%, Water soluble ash 2.8% and the loss on drying at 1050 c was found to be 0.043%), phytochemical analysis showed the presence of rich source of alkaloids, carbohydrates, saponins, tannins, phenols, phytosterol, diterpenes, flavanoids, proteins& aminoacids. SEM analysis showed that VPM was arranged in agglomerates of size of micro particles. EDAX analysis showed the presence of minerals like carbon, oxygen, magnesium, aluminum, silica, sulphur, chloride, potassium, calcium. FTIR showed the peak values which are the fuctional groups present. The sophisticated analysis of instruments were also an essential criteria in studying the surface morphology, topography and the chemical bonds present in them which indirectly correlates with the activity and also an important factor in the standardization of the drugs.